CORRECTION TO CAMPUS WATCH PARTIAL POSTING
OF AN DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN WEB REPORT ON A SPEECH BY MFI PRESIDENT I.
AHMAD AT UNIV. OF PENNSYLVANIA
The article [posted on the
Campus Watch website] mischaracterizes my speech at the University of
Pennsylvania, a fact that was noted on the Daily Pennsylvanian website
by the
event organizer Ben Herzig . I am
particularly concerned that the
original article, in attempting
to simplify my complex explanation of why I supported recognizing the
state of
Israel, gives a misleading reading of what I said. It certainly does
not
represent what I meant, and the fact Mr. Herzig got the point suggests
that the
article does not adequately represent what I actually SAID, either. In
any
case, my point was that governments are legitimized only by the consent
of the
governed. Thus, Israel is delegitimized by its self-definition as an
apartheid
state, a Jewish state in a land whose people are mainly not Jews.
(Expelling or
killing the indigenous people is not an acceptable means of
legitimization.)
If, however, Israel would agree to abide by International Law, then, we
should
set aside doubts as to whether the United Nations had a moral or legal
right to
establish the state in the first place, and recognize Israel as a
pragmatic
means to attain the peace that most Israelis and most Palestinians
earnestly
desire. I dismissed HAMAS' arguments that all of Palestine is a trust
for the
Muslim people just as I dismiss the Jewish National Fund's claim that
all of
Eretz Israel is a trust for the Jewish people.
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